Study points to essential role of IL-22 in lung repair after the flu

Monday, March 11, 2013

Once the initial episode of influenza has passed, the chronic effects tend to be overlooked. The results of a new study indicate that the cytokine interleukin-22 (IL-22) plays a critical role in normal lung repair following influenza infection. This study is published in the April 2013 issue of the American Journal of Pathology.

"With the increasing prevalence of more infective and/or virulent strains of influenza, understanding the impact of virus on the host epithelium and the processes involved in lung repair are of great importance," says John F. Alcorn, PhD, an immunologist affiliated with the department of pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. He notes that the findings open up new possibilities for developing therapeutic agents that promote recovery of normal lung function and architecture after influenza infection and lessen the likelihood of secondary infections. "A key finding is that even after the resolution of infection, influenza results in lung parenchymal remodeling that may be critical to susceptibility to further injury," says Dr. Alcorn.

This series of experiments used 6- to 8-week-old wild-type (WT) mice (C57BL/6 strain) as well as IL-22?deficient mice, infected with influenza A PR/8/34 H1N1 or control vehicle. To determine the distribution of IL-22 in the lung, they used immunohistochemistry for the high affinity IL-22Ra1 receptor. Investigators found that in WT mice not inflected with influenza, IL-22 receptors were distributed on epithelial cells of the large and small airways, but not within the parenchyma. They noted that this receptor distribution suggests that in the absence of lung injury, IL-22 interacts mainly with the bronchial epithelial cells.

By 21 days post influenza infection, IL-22 receptors were observed in parenchymal tissue in injured areas, such as alveoli under repair. Researchers suggest that the IL-22 receptor can be upregulated at sites of influenza-associated injury.

The investigators also reported that 10 days after influenza infection, IL-22?deficient mice showed significantly more severe damage and greater lung edema than WT control mice, as indicated by higher lactate dehydrogenase levels and more total protein content in bronchoalveolar lavage. No differences were found in viral load. Another indication of more severe lung injury was an increase in the number of lymphocytes in the IL-22?deficient animals.

IL-22?deficient mice also showed functional impairments. For instance, those infected with influenza showed significantly decreased compliance (referring to lung distensibility) and increased hysteresis (referring to compliance differences during inspiration and expiration), indicating lung stiffness. Histological examination 21 days after influenza infection showed that IL-22?deficient mice displayed regions of diffuse inflammation and alveolar injury, few areas of metaplasia, higher intimal thickening, proteinaceous accumulation, and increased collagen deposition compared to WT mice. Gene expression analysis revealed aberrant expression of epithelial genes involved in repair processes in the mice lacking IL-22.

"The role of IL-22 in promoting epithelial repair is emerging. We demonstrate that IL-22 plays a critical role in regulating pulmonary epithelial repair responses during influenza infection and resolution," says Dr. Alcorn. IL-22 is currently under development as a potential therapeutic in human clinical trials.

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Elsevier Health Sciences: http://www.elsevierhealth.com

Thanks to Elsevier Health Sciences for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127231/Study_points_to_essential_role_of_IL____in_lung_repair_after_the_flu

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'Star Wars: Clone Wars' Canceled To Make Room For New Series In New Time Period

It's a dark day in the galaxy far, far away for fans of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." After five years of fighting the good fight against the Trade Federation and Emperor Palpatine on Cartoon Network, the prequel series will end, as development on a new animated series begins. "As we enter into an exciting [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/03/11/star-wars-clone-wars-canceled/

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The Real Estate Blog: Does Your Realtor do Internet Marketing?

Does your real estate have an aggressive internet marketing campaign?? We're not talking about how a realtor markets their business on the internet - we're talking about how your realtor promotes your property listing on the internet.

In our opinion, it's not enough to put the listing in the multiple listing service ("MLS") and wait until the listing is "syndicated" to other websites.? Think of it in terms of "traditional" marketing of your property.? It's not enough to put a realtor "for sale" sign in front of the property and wait until buyers show up.

Today's successful real estate internet marketing campaign includes additional online promotion of property listings.? There's no one right way to do this - each agent has their own style, their own "tried and true" methods for online promotion that work in their area and in their marketplace.? For some agents, and in some areas, putting the listing on an internet classified ad website such as Craigslist draws potential buyers.? For other agents, and in other real estate market areas, adding the listing to a blog can draw an audience. Many agents will post the listing on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, etc. to promote the listing to their network of connections.? And other agents use videos to promote their listings.? All strategies are good - and can be effective ways to expand the marketing of a property online. We recommend that agents have their listings displayed on their personal real estate websites as well as on their company's real estate website - at a minimum.?

Home sellers can truly benefit from the online promotion of their property.? If you are a home seller, ask your realtor to explain their internet marketing campaign.? If you are a real estate agent, we'd like to know - what online tools work in your marketplace?

Internet marketing is important for any property listing.? The ability to reach a world-wide audience of potential buyers is amazing!? Shouldn't your property have that advantage?

Source: http://www.real-estate-blog.com/2013/03/does-your-realtor-do-internet-marketing.html

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10 Things to Know for Today

St. Peter's Basilica is seen as people walk outside St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Monday, March 11, 2013. Cardinals have gathered for their final day of talks before the conclave to elect the next pope amid debate over whether the Catholic Church needs a manager pope to clean up the Vatican's messy bureaucracy or a pastoral pope who can inspire the faithful and make Catholicism relevant again. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

St. Peter's Basilica is seen as people walk outside St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Monday, March 11, 2013. Cardinals have gathered for their final day of talks before the conclave to elect the next pope amid debate over whether the Catholic Church needs a manager pope to clean up the Vatican's messy bureaucracy or a pastoral pope who can inspire the faithful and make Catholicism relevant again. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

In this Sunday, March 10, 2013 photo taken with a 600-millimeter telephoto lens, comet Pan-STARRS appears between the clouds low in the western sky as seen from Harrells, N.C. The comet, which was closest to the sun on Sunday, is expected to become more easily visible to observers in the Northern Hemisphere during the coming week. (AP Photo/The Fayetteville Observer, Johnny Horne)

FILE - In this Dec. 31, 2012 file photo, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick speaks to members of the media as he cleans out his locker at the team's NFL football training facility in Philadelphia. Vick's book-signing tour has been canceled because of threats against him for running a dogfighting ring. Vick was scheduled to sign copies of his autobiography "Finally Free," at Barnes & Noble stores in Atlanta, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The March 26, 2013, appearance set for Exton, Pa., was listed as canceled on the company's website. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:

1. PICKING A POPE MAY REQUIRE PATIENCE

"There are many different candidates, so it's normal that it's going to take longer than the last time," Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz of Chile tells the AP.

2. WHO'S A SURPRISE PAPAL POSSIBILITY

Don't count out Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley, known for helping broker an $85 million settlement with victims of pedophile priests.

3. A LESSON FROM THE RECENT PAST

It's probably only a matter of time before North Korea launches a sudden, deadly attack on the South.

4. SIGNS POINT TO AN INSANITY DEFENSE FOR COLORADO DEFENDANT

James Holmes, the suspect in last summer's deadly movie theater shooting, is scheduled to enter a plea today.

5. GOOD BUDGET NEWS ? BUT ONLY IN THE SHORT RUN

The federal deficit will drop in the next couple of years. But then it's likely to start rising again.

6. NO HELP YET FOR CALORIE-CONSCIOUS DINERS

The FDA is having trouble figuring out just who should be covered by a new law requiring the listing of calories on menus.

7. WHAT A FACEBOOK 'LIKE' REVEALS

Researchers say it can indicate whether you're gay, how you vote and even if you have a high IQ.

8. SODA'S RUN AS THE NATION'S FAVORITE BEVERAGE FIZZLES

In its place? A favorite for much of history: Plain old H2O.

9. WHEN TO TURN YOUR EYES TO THE HEAVENS

Best views of the comet Pan-STARRS come tonight, when it will appear in the Northern Hemisphere beside a crescent moon.

10. WHY MICHAEL VICK WON'T BE AUTOGRAPHING HIS NEW AUTOBIOGRAPHY

A bookstore tour is scrapped because of threats against the NFL quarterback for running a dogfighting ring.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-12-10-Things-to-Know-Today/id-9d828e3a8813401ca3f8ce83b802b8b0

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F-35 chief wants to trim program staff - Marine Corps Times

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2013/03/dn031213-f35-bogdan-budget-mil/

WASHINGTON ? The general in charge of the multinational F-35 Joint Strike Fighter effort is making organizational changes within the Pentagon?s program office, and he has a message for the jet?s prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, and engine-maker, Pratt & Whitney: Do the same thing.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said Tuesday that he is ?not quite ready? to disclose the changes within the government program office yet.

?I am making housekeeping changes. You just don?t know about them yet,? he told a small group of reporters after speaking at a conference here sponsored by Credit Suisse and McAleese and Associates.

?Mark my word, I am reorganizing and I?m making personnel changes,? said Bogdan, who in December took over the nearly $400 billion program to build jets for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and U.S. allies.

Asked how much he plans to reorganize the program office, Bogdan said, ?I plan on leaning out my program office at the same rate that I want to see Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney lean out their program offices.?

The government has about 2,000 people working on the F-35 program at the Arlington, Va.-based headquarters and multiple sites around the country.

Bogdan is ?considering different organizational alignments within the program office,? program spokesman Joe DellaVedova said. ?These are improvements within the organization to make us better, streamline processes and improve how we do business.?

Frank Kendall, the Pentagon?s undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said the size of the contractors? F-35 program offices is considerable.

?One of the things that we observed when going through the structure of Lockheed was that they do have a very large program office,? Kendall told reporters after speaking at the same conference. ?It?s one of the cost items that we talked about during the course of the negotiation.?

DellaVedova said Bogdan was not referring reducing staff sizes, but other methods of leaning out their program offices.

A Lockheed F-35 program spokesman disagreed.

?Our program office staff is properly sized for the F-35 development, production and sustainment scope for our current contracts,? Michael Rein said in an email. ?We continuously examine staffing as we submit proposals in response to new or additional government requests, and we make adjustments as necessary and appropriate.?

Pratt pushed back saying it has ?a lean organization that supports not only the F135 engine program, but our other engine programs as well.

?It is important to note that even though the F135 program is the single biggest program at Pratt & Whitney, we only have a single executive dedicated to the program; the great majority of our staffing is engineering and manufacturing labor,? said company spokesman Matthew Bates. ?We staff to meet our contract requirements and would make adjustments based on any contract modifications from the F-35 Joint Program Office.?

Bates said the company has ?offered unsolicited proposals to the government that would have eliminated unproductive requirements and reduced the need for additional headcount, saving the government millions of dollars. Although the government rejected these proposals ? such as us accepting a firm fixed price rather than incentive fee contracts ? we will continue to pursue ways to cut costs and strengthen the overall program.?

Getting the Price Down

The price tag of the F-35 continues to come down with each jet purchased, but there are many variables influencing the numbers.

For instance, when the Turkish government delayed buying two airplanes from the seventh production batch to the ninth, the price of the remaining F-35s in the seventh production lot went up $1 million each.

?In a lot of 36 airplanes, just moving two airplanes out created about a 1 [percent] to 1.5 percent increase from all the other airplanes in that lot regardless of the variant,? Bogdan said.

?What I tell my partners and I tell the services is, we?re all going to hang together or we?re all going to hang separately,? he said. ?If we start moving airplanes out and each of us takes our own course in when we want airplanes, everyone else is going to pay a price for that.?

Bogdan said he believes the cost of the jet will continue to fall with each batch purchased.

?I believe that trend is going to continue on and on and on until we get to a point where the airplane is going to almost, in then-year dollars, cost what we thought it would cost in the early years of this program,? Bogdan said. ?I think we can get there.?

Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney are getting more efficient in production, and manufacturing quality is improving, Bogdan said.

?I believe that, relative to the rest of the program, that production costs are moving in the right direction,? he said.

In 2019 or 2020, a conventional F-35A, with an engine, is expected to cost about $90 million in then-year dollars. An A-model F-35 currently costs about $119 million.

As production costs decline later in the decade, the F-35 will become more affordable and ?fit within the budget,? Bogdan said.

On Monday, the Government Accountability Office said the F-35 program had made strides in 2012 but still has lots of testing ahead.

F-35 acquisition funding requirements average $12.6 billion annually through 2037, according to the GAO report.

?The GAO finding that the program is on more stable footing reflects tremendous effort to rebaseline the program and aggressively manage development, production and cost,? Bogdan said in a statement. ?We have more work to do and we?re committed to delivering on the promise of the F-35; it will form the backbone of U.S. air combat superiority for generations to come.?

The Impact of Sequestration

With mandatory defense spending cuts ? known as sequestration ? on the horizon, Bogdan said his top priority is keeping F-35 development funded over production.

If the Pentagon has the authority to choose where it makes the cuts mandated by sequestration, program officials will have more flexibility in making F-35 program decisions.

?I can?t do anything that takes me off course to 2015 and 2017 in terms of development,? Bogdan said at the conference, referring to key battle-ready dates for the Marine Corps and Air Force, respectively. ?The first dollar that comes out of the program will not, should not, come out of development.

?If I can?t get to 2015 and 2017 with the capabilities that the war fighter wants, why in heck would I continue building airplanes that come off the production line without the capability we want?? he said.

If money is taken from the F-35 program, Bogdan said it should be done in a balanced way. For instance, he said spare parts should not be sacrificed to save an aircraft.

?Don?t kill all of my spares to save a tail, because in two years when I have no spares, I?ll have airplanes out in the field, hundreds of them, that I can?t fly,? he said.

Despite sequestration, Kendall said, ?we still have a budget that is adequate to support F-35.?

Kendall discussed another pressure that could potentially affect the F-35 program: the start of an effort to find its replacement. In his remarks at the conference, Kendall said he has been working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on the Air Dominance Initiative, designed to start the preliminary work on the next-generation fighter. How quickly that program proceeds will partially be driven by the success of the F-35 program.

?There are going to be footsteps behind Lockheed eventually from the next generation, whatever it is, of air dominance system,? Kendall said. ?At some point, we?re going to go beyond F-35 to whatever comes next, and the point at which we choose to do that will depend in part on how well we get the cost of the F-35 down and on how well it performs.?

Defense News staff writer Zachary Fryer-Biggs contributed to this report.

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Source: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2013/03/dn031213-f35-bogdan-budget-mil/

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China's Xi flexes muscle, chooses reformist VP: sources

By Benjamin Kang Lim and John Ruwitch

BEIJING (Reuters) - A reformist member of China's decision-making Politburo, Li Yuanchao, is set to become the country's vice president this week instead of a more senior and conservative official best known for keeping the media in check, sources said.

Li's appointment would be a sign that new Communist Party leader and incoming president Xi Jinping's clout is growing, a source with ties to the leadership said. Xi fended off a bid by influential former president Jiang Zemin to install propaganda tsar Liu Yunshan in the job, the source said.

Jiang was a major power behind the scenes in the administration of outgoing President Hu Jintao.

The post of vice president is largely symbolic. However the job would raise Li's profile, give him a role in foreign affairs and further bolster Xi, who took the top jobs in the party and military at the Communist Party congress in November.

The promotion of Li may also signal a willingness on the part of Xi to pursue limited reforms that Li is known to have advocated in his previous posts, such as making the selection of Communist officials more inclusive.

Leadership changes in China are thrashed out behind closed doors through horse-trading between new leaders and outgoing or retired leaders anxious to preserve their influence and protect family interests, but reshuffles must go through a choreographed selection process.

Two other sources, who declined to be identified because it is sensitive to discuss elite politics with foreign media, also confirmed that Xi had decided to make Li his vice president rather than Liu.

The National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament, will vote in Xi and Li as president and vice president respectively on March 14. Li Keqiang, the party's new No.2 official, will succeed Wen Jiabao to become premier and oversee the economy and day-to-day running of the cabinet.

"Li Yuanchao will be vice president, not Liu Yunshan," the source with leadership ties said.

"It was Xi's decision and a sign he is strong and able to say 'no' to Jiang," the source told Reuters.

CONSOLATION PRIZE

In November, Liu was promoted to the seven-man Politburo standing committee with responsibility for propaganda and ideology. He has also taken over two of Xi's previous positions: president of the Central Party School, which grooms up-and-coming cadres, and top seat on the Secretariat of the party's elite 205-member Central Committee.

Liu served as propaganda minister from 2002 to 2012, keeping a tight leash on domestic media and China's Internet, which has more than 500 million users.

His rival, Li, had been widely considered a top contender for a spot on the standing committee in November but party elders led by Jiang used a last-minute straw poll to block him from joining the body, sources have said.

The vice presidential appointment "in part is compensation for him not getting into the Politburo standing committee", said Guo Liangping, a Chinese politics expert at the National University of Singapore's East Asia Institute.

"That position has high exposure to the world, it's high profile, probably more prestigious, but in terms of real power it's limited."

If Li makes it, it would mark the first time since 1998 that the vice president is not a member of the standing committee - the apex of power in China. Li sits on the 25-member Politburo, one notch below the standing committee.

But both Li and Liu are too old to be potential successors to Xi.

"This time it's kind of a holding position," said Kerry Brown, executive director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

Li has been regarded as progressive for advocating incremental reforms in how the party promotes officials and consults the populace on policies, but how much influence he has as vice president will be, to a large degree, decided by Xi.

"If Xi wants a pro-active, tightly-allied kind of vice president, then the vice president will have power. If he wants a purely symbolic figure who is there to do absolutely nothing, then that's what the vice president will do," said Brown.

The vice presidency was created by a change to the constitution in 1982. President Hu served in that role from 1998 to 2003 which formally anointed him as heir apparent to Jiang. Xi also served in that role from 2008 until the present.

The duties of the vice president include assisting the president and taking over the presidency in the event the president resigns or dies in office.

Li, a "princeling" whose father was a former vice mayor of Shanghai, earned mathematics and economics degrees from two of China's best universities and has a doctorate in law. He also spent time at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-xi-flexes-muscle-chooses-reformist-vp-sources-210218387--business.html

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Justin Timberlake Gives 'SNL' Ratings Boost

Singer/host and cast of all-star pals put up best numbers since January 2012.
By Gil Kaufman

Steve Martin and Justin Timberlake on "Saturday Night Live"
Photo: NBC/Broadway Video

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1703374/justin-timberlake-snl-ratings-boost.jhtml

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